New-to-chapters readers will gladly join the herd and say “Lo’hai” (hello) to Bermooda and its denizens.
In the cow paradise of Bermooda the only things to fear are the legendary monsters known as hu’mans.
Chuck is bored, so bored that for excitement he is willing to explore the Boneyard, site of the crash 300 years ago of the HMS Hortica, which brought cows to Bermooda. (In Bermooda, “cow” does not appear to be a gendered term.) There, Chuck rescues a strange creature floating on an orange ring…and it turns out to be a hu’man, only without the claws, teeth and fire breath Chuck’s been told to expect. Chuck befriends Dakota and promises to get him back to his family. The duo make a cow suit that, astonishingly, fools everyone into believing Dakota is a cow. None of Chuck’s ideas to get Dakota home work, but in the planning, they discover a puzzling mystery that comes to a head at the Boomflower Festival. Can they solve it and keep Dakota’s identity a secret? Litwin’s light tale of friendship is full of Hawaii-inspired cow puns and reads like the intro to a series, since it introduces a large cast of characters, few of whom get to do much. Chuck and Dakota are nicely rounded characters, and the promised illustrations look to be endearingly cartoony.
New-to-chapters readers will gladly join the herd and say “Lo’hai” (hello) to Bermooda and its denizens. (Fantasy. 6-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8075-8718-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts.
What terrors lurk within your mouth? Jasper Rabbit knows.
“You have stumbled your way into the unknown.” The young bunny introduced in Reynolds and Brown’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Creepy Carrots (2012), takes up Rod Serling’s mantle, and the fit is perfect. Mimicking an episode of The Twilight Zone, the book follows Charlie Marmot, an average kid with a penchant for the strange and unusual. He’s pleased when his tonsils become infected; maybe once they’re out he can take them to school for show and tell! That’s when bizarre things start to happen: Noises in the night. Slimy trails on his bedroom floor. And when Charlie goes in for his surgery, he’s told that the tonsils have disappeared from his throat; clearly something sinister is afoot. Those not yet ready for Goosebumps levels of horror will find this a welcome starter pack. Reynolds has perfected the tension he employed in his Creepy Tales! series, and partner in crime Brown imbues each illustration with both humor and a delicate undercurrent of dark foreshadowing. While the fleshy pink tonsils—the sole spot of color in this black-and-white world—aren’t outrageously gross, there’s something distinctly disgusting about them. And though the book stars cute, furry woodland creatures, the spooky surprise ending is 100% otherworldly—a marvelous moment of twisted logic.
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts. (Early chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665961080
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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